Center of the Universe
by theNEWanias
Summary: There was heat, there was snark, there was a pool, and there was slash...oh, and did I mention the humor? maxxie/tony


Center of the Universe (Ego)

_mono_chr0matic_

Tony learned long ago that arrogance isn't something you get for free; it is a medal you have to earn, an award for some original accomplishment. It is for those who perform well. It's much more important and much more acceptable than most people know. The one person who truly fails to comprehend this simple ideology is Maxxie Oliver.

Tony feels strongly that Maxxie, above all people (except maybe Tony) deserves to wear a badge of arrogance. He dances, he draws, he makes amazing toast. Oh…and there are other things Maxxie is good at.

…It was dark, and the air was so incredibly hot that it seemed to cling to their bodies.

"Maybe…we should go…outside," Tony suggested between heavy, labored breaths. They'd peeled off as much clothing as they could get away with; what with Maxxie being gay and all, it might look odd to the parents if they were to walk in and the boys were completely naked.

"Maybe we should," Maxxie agreed, "but I'd rather not. Not like this."

Neither boy could remember it ever getting this hot in Bristol since…well, since ever, it would seem. Tony wouldn't have been very surprised if upon glancing at the thermometer, it would be broken. He would drink the spilled mercury, if only to escape the heat.

Maxxie felt like his pounding heart was shattering in his chest; the heat was so excruciatingly _hot_. It wasn't dry heat, it was wet heat; it wasn't that pleasant if not faintly itchy, empty sort of heat, it was full. Full and wet and miserable and _hot_. Maxxie was sure that his blood was slowly turning to sludge in his veins, too hot to carry on.

_I'm going to start choking soon_, he predicted, _I'm going to die and it's going to say I was hot-blooded on my headstone_. Somehow, Maxxie managed to force a barking laugh out of his barely-parted mouth. He regretted it almost instantly: breathing was becoming difficult.

"I forget, is the window open?" Tony asked. He had his eyes closed, hoping that maybe he could psych himself into believing it was cooler than it was.

"All the way," Maxxie answered regrettably. He was on his back. He wanted to look at Tony, but he couldn't make himself move under such a stifling blanket of heat. He was slowly going mad, ready to stand up at a moment's notice and tear apart his bed, discarding the sheets and the pillows and Tony all in one, fluid motion…if only he could get the adrenaline going.

"Fuck," Tony spat. The heat made him angry and impatient, insufferable even to himself. "You know, this global climate crisis shit is for the birds," he added, trying to vent. Perhaps if he could get rid of some of the anger, the heat wouldn't bother him so much…if only the heat wasn't what caused the anger.

"Tone," Maxxie whined, "make it_ stop_!"

Tony flinched with discomfort when he felt one of Maxxie's fingertips brush his knuckles. He took his hand back sharply, mouth snarling in disgust for any kind of contact. "What do you want me to do about it?"

Maxxie never answered.

"Maxxie?"

Still, nothing. Nothing but the slow creak of aching, old floorboards.

"Max?" Tony managed to force himself up into a sitting position, and when he finally opened his eyes, Maxxie was nowhere to be seen. Tony was considerably confused until he heard an awful retching sound from down the hall. "_Great_," Tony said to himself. He walked the short distance to the toilet and found poor Maxxie down on his hands and knees, hunched over the porcelain bowl. His face was red and his limbs were trembling.

They said it couldn't happen, but apparently, whoever 'they' were, they were wrong. Maxxie, it seemed, was suffering from heat poisoning.

When he was certain that Maxxie was incapable of producing any more vomit, Tony knelt down beside his friend and held him, rubbing his back until the shaking stopped. "You need to take a cold shower, Maxxie."

Maxxie shook his head and made a small, pitiful noise. "Can't. Parents."

"I don't think they'll care if –"

Maxxie cut him off. "No, no. Don't." He was waving his hands haphazardly.

Tony was at a loss and sat back, pulling Maxxie with him. The two boys sat on the chilly linoleum of the bathroom floor, relishing the short-lived but wonderful coolness it kept. Finally, an idea wormed its way inside of Tony's head. "Maxxie," he began, "one of your neighbors has a pool, if I recall correctly."

"Mmhmm," Maxxie answered.

"Okay. Let's go." It was hard enough making himself stand up, but pulling Maxxie up as well was almost impossible. Maxxie, strung out on heat sickness was like a wet rag in Tony's arms. He made faint noises of protest, worried about being caught, but inaudible as they were, Tony ignored him.

When it came time to go down the stairs, Tony was posed with a rather nasty challenge: he had to not only get a rather defiant Maxxie down the stairs, but he had to do it with a minimal amount of noise. After a long bout of thought, Tony decided on baby cradling his friend down the stairs. He did, nearly losing balance a few times but never once did he actually fall or drop his precious cargo. By the time he reached the bottom of the steps, his arms were already sore and his elbows were complaining.

"Alright Max, come on – I gotta' move you." Tony set Maxxie down on the bottom step and rested a moment before positioning his friend on his back, legs limp and arms carefully wrapped around Tony's neck. "Be careful, if you can," he warned in a whisper. Maxxie made a noncommittal moan of acknowledgment – less of an 'I promise' and more of an 'I'll try.'

Tony lugged Maxxie on his back like that all the way down the block to the aforementioned neighbor's house; the weight was hard on Tony's back, but it was so obviously an athletic weight. The way Maxxie's muscles stirred and twitched arbitrarily over parts of Tony's body was frightening and exhilarating all at once. Maxxie's breath was torture on Tony's neck because it only added to the sticky heat around them; the little gasps of air were small and pathetic as they squeaked past Maxxie's pink lips. Tony was thankful for the shivers down his spine.

Finally, they were safely in the back yard of one of the brick buildings, the sight of the blue and shimmering pool more than welcome. Tony laid Maxxie down on the crispy lawn and made him open his eyes before even considering putting him in deep water.

"Think you can swim?" he asked.

Maxxie nodded, but Tony made him speak first. "_Yes_, damn it."

Tony stripped himself even further, down to absolutely nothing before stepping hungrily into the water. He had to muffle a moan of ecstasy so that they wouldn't get caught: the cool, clean feeling of the pool was better than anything he'd ever felt, or at least that's what he would have told you.

Tony watched with cautious eyes as Maxxie slowly crawled over and dipped his feet up to the ankles in the pool. He eased into the water and rested his head back on the tile rim once he was finally all the way in. "Oh _yes_, that's better," he whispered.

"Isn't it, though?" It had become increasingly easier to speak without the pressure of heat bearing down on their bodies. "You should dunk, Maxxie. It will feel better."

Maxxie did; as quietly as possible, he didn't surface for so long that Tony almost went under to check if he was drowning. At last, though, Maxxie's blonde head emerged from the water, small droplets trailing down his face and neck. "That felt amazing," was all he could find to say.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Tony lifted his feet off the bottom of the pool and allowed his body to sink down, down, down until he felt chilly concrete against the arch of his back. He watched contentedly as Maxxie swum overhead, his body a dark, almost menacing silhouette against the navy cutout of the chemically treated water and the dark night sky.

And then, Tony got an awful, perfect, _rotten_ idea. Placing his open palms against the floor of the pool, he pushed himself upward towards Maxxie's body and surfaced only inches away. Scaring Maxxie further, he dragged his fingers down Maxxie's back and just over the curve of his ass.

Maxxie yelped in alarm.

"Shut it, you'll get us caught!" Tony reprimanded. His face was all business but Maxxie saw a twinkle in his eyes.

"So don't scare me like that!"

Tony smirked that trademark Tony Stonem smirk. It was probably patented somewhere…. Without a word, he cut through the water, the noise both inviting and threatening. "It's gonna' feel so good, Maxxie," Tony promised once he'd cornered his friend against the far wall of the pool. He leaned in and kissed Maxxie on the lips, pressing his tongue forward, _begging_.

Maxxie hesitated before parting his lips for Tony.

It was too easy to let this happen; the dark sky was aglow with stars and the summer heat mixed with the pleasant cool of the water and the body that was _Tony_ was too much to resist, especially in such a heady, vulnerable state.

The kiss got hotter and hotter; Tony wrapped his arms around Maxxie's neck, pulling himself into the kiss. He sucked Maxxie's lower lip into his mouth causing the other boy to groan; it tasted good, Tony decided. He laid short, wet kissed on Maxxie's square jaw and down his neck before backing away a bit, giving way for Maxxie to pursue him if he wished.

Tony hoped he would.

The next thing Tony knew, he was backed up against the other side of the pool, the jagged edges of bricks cutting uncomfortably into the back of his neck. Maxxie laid both hands on his shoulders and pressed his weight onto them.

"Tell me you're not going to regret this," he said, those grey eyes ominous in their sockets. Maxxie was serious about this.

But Tony wasn't. "Oh, don't get all _Michelle_ on me –"

Wrong answer. Maxxie pushed him a little harder. "Don't, Tony." He breathed a little and loosened his grip on Tony, who was shaking slightly. "I'm not asking you to care, I'm asking you not to treat me like shit tomorrow."

"I carried you over here to save you from heat poisoning."

Maxxie's silence was ambiguous; whether he was persuaded or annoyed, Tony couldn't tell.

To convince Maxxie, he offered, "I know, I know…I'm not taking up canoeing." That made Maxxie smile a bit, which definitely reassured Tony. Besides, he liked Maxxie's smile. It was contagious.

"Okay then…so long as you know." And with that, Maxxie's head disappeared beneath the surface. Tony gasped quietly and gripped the edge of the pool to keep from drowning. The first kiss had landed right on the ball of his hip where leg met torso. It was a surprisingly sensitive spot that most people overlooked. Maxxie was all about it. He bit the skin, but never too hard, and when he finally had to come up for oxygen, he pressed his body against Tony's, allowing his head to rest on Tony's shoulder. Those same hot breaths cascaded over Tony's skin.

"Turn around, Tone," Maxxie instructed from his precarious pose.

Tony felt both excited and nervous at allowing himself to be ordered around a little. He twisted in the water until he could rest his chin on his own crossed arms on the ledge of the pool. He closed his eyes and tried to relax.

Tony gasped.

Maxxie was burrowing his nose in Tony's dark hair; Tony smelled of a plethora of different, wonderful things: shampoo, cologne, and various aromas that had found and attached themselves to him throughout the day. Smoke, a little bit of liquor, maybe some pot. Maxxie cherished this little piece of Tony he was locking away in his memory. His nose satiated, Maxxie tore himself away from Tony's head and began to kiss the back of his neck, allowing his hands to curiously explore Tony's body like sentient pets. He wanted to trap the way Tony felt inside his fingertips; he never wanted to forget the way skin glided with the help of water like a thin veil.

He nipped at the nape of the brunette's neck and reveled in the aching sound that escaped. He pushed himself against Tony so that there was almost no room between them, save for the natural dip in Tony's back that arched away from Maxxie's flat stomach. Maxxie leaned in closer, trying to close the gap as much as possible. By this point, his hands had found paths down Tony's sides and onto the smooth plane of his stomach.

Unlike so many people, Maxxie didn't see Tony as a beautiful, unattainable prize. He saw Tony as another human being.

"Maxxie, touch me," Tony pleaded, bending backward and trying to arch into his friend.

"I am touching you, Tone." Maxxie was taunting him, treasuring the opportunity to mock him. "You're going to have to be more explicit than that." To punctuate his statement, Maxxie lowered a hand and scarcely stroked Tony's naval before taking it away.

Tony growled, frustrated and impatient; the incessant teasing was irritating him endlessly. _Fine_, he thought, _he wants me to be 'explicit?'_ He coiled in Maxxie's grasp and moaned. "I want you to fuck me, Maxxie," he said. It was painful to admit, but it was apparently the only way he was going to get what he wanted, and Tony wasn't sure what was worse: begging or not getting what he wanted. "I want to feel you inside me," he added, hoping to inspire his friend.

"Here? Now?" Maxxie asked innocently. It was a cruel thing to do, but not nearly as cruel as many of the things Tony had done. If he compared this to so many other things, Maxxie found what he was doing to be quite justifiable. "I don't know if I can…" He reached further down and found that thickening, heavy weight between Tony's legs and squeezed terribly lightly.

Tony let out an awful, delectable noise, which Maxxie muffled with a hand at once. Tony bit playfully at Maxxie's palm. Maxxie took his hand back, shook it momentarily and then slid it back into the water, this time over Tony's back. Eventually, he moved both hands behind the brunette, underneath him, and between his legs. It was an odd arrangement, but it did more than get the job done. It wasn't long before Maxxie slid one hand over Tony's hip and began to stroke him while he moved the other to his friend's ass.

"_Maxxie_," Tony sighed, and the sound was so, _so_ sweet. It was desperate and pained and lovely.

Maxxie hummed in Tony's ear and slid a finger inside of him, careful despite the ease with which it went; the water provided an amazing amount of lubrication. "You like that?" Maxxie asked, his voice uncharacteristically coarse. It was like a slow grind in Tony's ear.

"Mmhmm," Tony nodded helplessly. This loss of control was hard to endure, but he was past the point of no return. The fact that Maxxie had managed to get inside him – even if it was only with his finger – was the end of Tony's boundary. With this limitation broken, there was no going back.

In more of a whisper than Tony thought possible, Maxxie warned, "Make me stop if it hurts you." It was a swift pause in the moment, a slight break, but it was enough to get the message across.

Maxxie's thumb over the head of Tony's cock. The slick slide of a second finger. The most elated moan Tony had ever heard. It felt so good that Tony _almost_ wanted to cry. He was mentally punishing himself for not having tried this earlier in his sexual career.

"_More_," Tony whimpered, "please?" he added. He knew that Maxxie possibly thought that he wasn't ready for this, but he knew he was.

There was a light thrum that vibrated out of Maxxie's chest and over Tony's back; whether it was out of pleasure or sympathy, Tony didn't care to know. "I said _specific_," Maxxie growled. There was a sharp and unhappy emptiness as Maxxie removed both fingers, but that hollow feeling was quickly replaced by shock and delight when there was the '_swish_' of water and a warm, wet sensation pressing into Tony.

He knew what Maxxie was doing, and frankly, he was stunned.

When Maxxie resurfaced, he snarled in Tony's ear, "_That_ kind of more?"

"No," Tony said, meek for the first time since Maxxie had known him, "but it was just as good."

"You don't even know." Maxxie was being abnormally aggressive, and while it scared Tony, it also thrilled him, filling him with hot anticipation.

And it was quick. First, there had been nothing, and then there was something – definitely _something_. Maybe more than something, if Tony thought about it hard enough. But he didn't want to waste what little brain function he had left on thought when he needed as much as was available to concentrate on breathing…which had suddenly become a rather _voluntary_ function.

Maxxie pushed into him, slowly until Tony relaxed fully. Then, he grabbed the boy's hips and pulled and pushed along with his own thrusts.

"I don't have it in me, Tone, you're gonna' have to something for yourself." Maxxie's voice was barely there as he focused solely on the motions of his hips, the slide of his cock in and out of Tony.

Tony was practically falling apart at the seams, but he supposed a little more unraveling couldn't hurt at this point. He made himself map out the path from the brick ledge down to his own throbbing erection and somehow, miraculously remembered how to touch himself. Through the haze inside his brain, he began to place well-timed strokes to the beat of Maxxie pounding into him.

The water just made it heaven.

All of a sudden, he felt Maxxie's movements get erratic and uncontrollable behind him, water sloshing up around his sides and into his face. There was a string of slurred obscenities, expletives, and even a few imagined words that dropped out of Maxxie's mouth like stones.

And finally, his name. "_Tony_, fuck!"

He was also nice enough to finish riding out until Tony's orgasm, which would have been extraordinarily loud if not for the fist that had been shoved so unceremoniously into his mouth.

They had only _just_ regained general consciousness when a light turned on in an upstairs window. _Shit_! The two boys virtually vaulted out of the pool, grabbed their few articles of clothing and made to dress on the run. At first, they worried that maybe they'd been heard, but as they hurried down the street in the near-darkness, they realized that the first citrusy tinge of light had begun to creep into the horizon.

"How long have we been gone?" Maxxie asked, frantic.

"Not _that_ long!" Tony was somewhere between laughter and tears. "We must've left later than we thought!"

The two boys stifled gobs and gobs of laughter and relieved sighs until they were back in Maxxie's room, the door tightly shut and locked. Then, they burst out with raucous, snorting hoots and cackles.

Victory was sweet.

After a while and a few more small emissions of the giggles, Tony looked up at Maxxie from the floor and said, "I…I kind of don't want this to end, you know."

Maxxie looked suddenly somber, as if all the happiness they had just enjoyed had dried up with Tony's simple statement.

"Sorry, Tone. It's not that kind of game."

…Sure, Maxxie is good at dancing, at drawing, at making toast. He is also good at kissing, at giving head, at fucking. But what astonishes Tony is that Maxxie is good at playing The Game.

Maxxie, who is right now sitting so sweetly on the green; Maxxie, who is so unassuming, so humble, so fucking _demure_. What Tony fails to realize is that the reason why Maxxie isn't arrogant is because there are no two Maxxies. The two are one and the same…unlike Tony, Maxxie doesn't separate into two seemingly different people, he simply has a public side and a private side. They are both part of the same person; there is no façade, there is only self-restraint.

Maxxie is smiling brightly at Tony.

Tony wants to punch Maxxie. He also wants to hug Maxxie, and kiss him and tug on that ridiculously blonde hair. He wants to figure Maxxie out.

Tony wants to be at the center of Maxxie's universe….


End file.
